Most Canadian jurisdictions have developed laws, regulations and rules of practice that facilitate class actions by representative plaintiffs who bring claims on behalf of large numbers of aggrieved persons, including those affected by pollution.

The public-policy reasons for establishing an effective class action regime include enhancing access to justice, ensuring judicial efficiency and modifying defendants’ conduct through the imposition of civil liability in cases that may otherwise be uneconomical or problematic to pursue as individual claims.

To achieve these objectives, the Ontario government enacted the Class...